Pointed Discussion

One of the more efficient creatures printed in the early period of magic, this card's drawback is easy to deal with and spawned several archetypes, most notably the Erhnamgeddon deck...

The Arabian Nights Djinns are pretty cool, even if they weren't that practical. Combo with Armageddon.

I miss "Ernie," a throwback from when big creatures had drawbacks (his was really quite minor) and required smart playing rather than the straight, no-thinking-necessary creatures of this era.

I think people are spoiled by easy dual lands and forgot how difficult it was to get multi-color mana in the past. A 4/5 using only ONE colored mana was a blessing back in the old days, especially since any pain land could produce it and thus nullify the drawback.

Nowadays people can play 3~5 color deck without issue, render old classic like Djinn obsolete. Splashable cards no longer hold their status. So sad.

Solid creature for its cost with a drawback that can be worked around (Armageddon being the classic example.)

Cards like this make me wish there was a format that banned all modern cards. Id take it as far back as alliances, but id settle for nothing after urza's block...

A few cards in the Arabian Nights set bear names that are personally significant to Richard Garfield. In this case, "Erhnam" is an anagram of "Herman," Garfield's brother-in-law.

@ Cyberium: Um, you DO know that you had the no-drawback duals (ie., Taiga and the rest) back in the day, right? If anything, going multicolor was easier!

Splashability had little to do with it. Up until Trained Armodon appeared in Tempest, you could not get an X/X for X mana for X greater than 2. To get a 4/5 for 4 was incredibly under-costed for its day. When he rotated, people were actually content to play Nettletooth Djinn as a "fair version" of Ernie.